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Bee Good

Another great inspection this week with lots of good news to report.

In the national hive, the bees have made good progress at 'drawing out' comb on the new super I added last week.

Bees Beat the Heat

We’ve been back to check on how the Honeydale apiary is faring following its demolition by sheep. I took Jack, our work experience lad, to inspect the new nuc in the WBC hive and the big National hive. It was hot work during this heatwave, but very cheering.


The Nuc box now has a mated queen and she is laying well (if you remember we got this box started by spitting one of Chris' hives when the queen was still a larvae.) We'll locate and mark her at the next inspection.


The big white National hive is doing amazingly well. It has now filled the second super we added on the last inspection (pic above) and we have added a third for the bees to fill. (pic below) This is very encouraging considering we lost two hives over the cold winter and we were surprised to see it doing so well when the weather is now so hot and dry.

Launch of the Honeydale Kitchen Garden

Exciting news. We’re very pleased to welcome The Kitchen Garden People who have begun setting up the Honeydale Kitchen Garden.




Emma, Christine and Dan have been running a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) scheme in Chadlington, near Honeydale, for the past couple of years. Dan is passionate about growing and is a genius at growing all sorts of different plants, including herbs and lesser known varieties of lettuce. He worked as a grower for Cultivate for many years, growing local food for local people in Oxford. Emma grew up on an environmentally-focused farm in Wales and is in charge of most of the behind-the-scenes admin and communications. Christine, trained as an agricultural engineer, is founder of the Charlbury Green Hub, and is also an apple expert. They all enjoy being outside, getting their hands dirty and feel passionate about combining conservation and farming.


‘CSA schemes are a way of being able to supply vegetables and other fresh produce to local people, eliminating waste and the risk to the grower,’ explains Emma. ‘It removes the danger of producing a wonderful crop and taking it to market, only to find that not enough people come to buy it.’

The food is incredibly healthy. Because it’s not grown for shelf life, and can be picked at just the right time and harvested and sold on the same day, the nutritional value is much better. No pesticides are used and it also allows for the reintroduction of different varieties. A century ago there were 288 different beetroots but now there are only 17. Due to the demands of supermarket shelf lives, lettuce varieties have plummeted from 417 to 36. Emma explains that they are free to choose what they grow for taste rather than shelf-life which makes each share reminiscent of what her grandpa Bob used to grow on his allotment with all it’s flavour and scent.

The CSA scheme is extremely practical. People pay a monthly subscription of £25 for seasonal food and whatever is produced that week is simply divided up so that everyone gets an equal share. ‘It does require a change in mindset,’ Emma explains. ‘Because some weeks you get more than you are paying for that week, and others you get less, but all our subscribers have had a £160 saving over the year so it really is a win-win.


‘A weekly email is sent to members telling them what to expect in their share to be collected on the Friday and there’s lots of variety. There are salads all year round thanks to the polytunnels. We only had one week when we weren’t able to harvest anything, during the cold spell, when the salad just didn’t thaw.’

The Chadlington Kitchen Garden began in 2016 on a ⅕ acre site at The Grey House in the village and Emma, Christine and Dan spent over a year growing and selling ad hoc. The plot is not much bigger than an allotment but there was a polytunnel, greenhouse and asparagus bed which meant that they were able to grow and sell asparagus straight away. The ⅕ acre was soon providing for 30 members. It has a lovely history too as it used to be Mrs Moore’s herb farm. Fred and Pete used to work for Mrs Moore and they bought the workers cottages after she died and now they peer over the fence at The Kitchen Garden People and like to see that the land is producing again. They are very helpful and insightful too, says Emma. ‘Pete sees us planting and says, “there’s frost in the air, wait a week.” And he’s always right.’